PIs 2005/06: Widening participation of students who are in receipt of disabled students allowance

This table is designed to provide information about the percentage of disabled students in the sector. It covers all UK domiciled undergraduate students, rather than just entrants. All full-time students and those part-time students who are studying at least 50% of the time are included.

The indicator is the percentage of students who are in receipt of Disabled Students’ Allowance. This is less than the percentage who are recorded as disabled, but should prove to be more robust. A number of people have noted that students do not have to inform their institution that they are in receipt of DSA and so potentially there could be a substantial undercount of the numbers involved. This does not appear to be a major problem.

The table is in three sections, one covering full-time first degree students, one covering full-time undergraduates (on first degree, diploma and other undergraduate non-degree courses) and the third covering part-time undergraduates studying at least 50% of the time. Each section gives the number of students in the category, the percentage who are in receipt of DSA (the indicator) and the benchmark. The benchmark is based on entry qualifications of the students and their subject of study.

Subject of study has been included in the benchmark for this indicator, in spite of concerns that to do so would imply an acceptance of the differences between subject areas. However, some of the differences may be due to the eligibility criteria set for the DSA and a number of professional bodies set physical criteria for their members which preclude some disabled people. These are outside the control of institutions and so including subject as a factor is reasonable.

Because students at the Open University (OU) form a large proportion of part-time students and as the percentage of disabled students at the OU is greater than that at other institutions, it has been excluded from the calculation of the benchmarks for part-time students. The Open University indicator, but no benchmark, has been included in the table.

As with other tables, the number of part-time students at an institution can be small. Combined with the extremely small percentages of disabled students in the group, the values of the indicator in such cases could be very variable. They should therefore be interpreted with care.

The sector table SD1 below, shows the percentage of full-time first degree students in receipt of Disabled Students' Allowance in each category in 2005/06.